1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a system for regulating the amount of solar energy entering, and the amount of heat transferred, through the roof of a greenhouse, an atrium, a skylight or a similar glazed opening.
2. Description of the Background Art
The design of a building can often be accented by furnishing a portion of the building with a xe2x80x9cgreenhousexe2x80x9d environment or an atrium covered by transparent or translucent material. Certain areas of the building are enclosed with glass to provide the greenhouse effect. Such an effect is most desirable because of the open feeling associated therewith which is carried into the surrounding interior space. Even small portions of a building providing a xe2x80x9cgreenhousexe2x80x9d effect gives the feeling of the entire building being open to the outdoors.
However, energy conservation with a transparent or translucent structure can be poor. In winter, the heat from the interior of the enclosure is conducted and radiated outside through the glass. In summer, the radiant energy of the sun is transmitted inside, thereby greatly increasing the demand for air conditioning. In short, the area of the building that is covered by a transparent or translucent material is cold in winter and hot in summer. Large quantities of energy must be expended to overcome these effects in attempting to provide a stable environment.
Solar greenhouses may be elegantly designed and proportioned to complement the beauty of a dwelling. They provide a versatile form of additional living space that can capture and store solar energy. Provision is thus made for a practical addition which confines a place in the sun for gardening, dining, lounging and so forth. In fact, such additional spaces have been used for accommodating hot tubs and spa accoutrements and the like.
Typically, greenhouses are structures with light transparent roofs and in many cases, light transparent walls. Heat is provided for the greenhouses both by fuel consuming heaters and solar heat passing through the light transparent sections of the greenhouse.
Up to 90% of the heat loss from conventional greenhouses occurs at night and during other dark or overcast periods. Accordingly, some greenhouses presently employ a variety of conventional insulating mats, shades, curtains and heat blankets for covering the transparent panes of the greenhouse and thereby slowing the escape of heat during periods of darkness. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,251. Such devices are also used to regulate the amount of sunlight entering the greenhouse and thereby the flowering cycles of certain plants.
One attempt to insulate greenhouses is an inflated polyethylene double cover wherein two layers of very large sheets of polyethylene are draped over the outside of a greenhouse roof and provided with an internal air layer to form a heat insulation barrier. The apparatus is clumsy, laborious to assemble, exposed to the elements and reduces ventilation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,648 issued Dec. 27, 1977, to C. L. Cary provides an insulating system for reducing heat loss from a structure during one part of the day and for permitting light to enter the structure during another part of the day. This system includes a roll mounted within the structure, a flexible sheet of material wound around the roll, a structure for supporting the roll immediate its length and engaging portions of the wound sheet, and means both for unwinding the sheet from the roll and deploying it in a plane and for rotating the roll to rewind the sheet there around. However, this approach is very uneconomical because of the complexity.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,170 issued Dec. 14, 1999 to Davis entitled xe2x80x9cLight Energy Shutter Systemxe2x80x9d provides an insulating system for reducing heat loss from a structure during one part of the day and for permitting light to enter the structure during another part of the day. This system includes a pneumatically operated shutter that is basically a tube that expands and contracts based on inflation and deflation, respectively. A transition sleeve made of cloth is inserted at each end of the tube to xe2x80x9cencourage the inflatable tubes to collapse to parallel thin sheetsxe2x80x9d.
All of the disclosures of the above stated prior art patents are incorporated herein by reference.
None of the above-identified patents teach the combination of structural elements disclosed and claimed herein which cooperate in a unique manner to provide an apparatus for regulating the transmission of energy through an energy transmissive structure that is economical and easily constructed.
It would, therefore, be advantageous to have an apparatus for regulating the transmission of energy through an energy transmissive structure that employed at least one polymer bag which has an elongated weight attached thereto thereby providing effective regulation of the transmission of energy through the transmissive structure and reducing the costs of construction. The arrangement according to the present invention is comparatively inexpensive to install, which provides an important precondition for its economic application in greenhouses, particularly those with large areas of cultivation.
According to a preferable embodiment the polymer bags inside the greenhouse can form several adjacent rows which effectively block the transmission of energy through the energy transmissive structure. In addition, the polymer bags are coated with a reflective material, metallized, to decrease the transmission of radiant energy there through. Moreover, the reflective material downwardly reflects light energy into the energy transmissive structure.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an improvement which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the art of regulating the transmission of energy through transmissive structures.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an apparatus which is easily and efficiently installed into energy transmissive structures.
An object of the present invention is to provide a reflective coating onto the polymer bags that downwardly reflects light energy into the energy transmissive structure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a reflective coating that is made from the group consisting of aluminum paint, nickel paint, silver paint or any other metallic paint.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a polymer bag that is made from the group consisting of polyethylene, polyester, polyamide, vinyl, polyvinyl chloride, acrylate or any other plastic material.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a tension spring that assists in holding the elongated weight in a fixed position.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an adjustable tee that allows the elongated support to be adjusted to the appropriate angular orientation to properly fit the transmissive structure.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a plurality of holes along the length of the elongated support to communicate the flow of air to the polymer bag.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a slot positioned at an end of the elongated support to allow easy installation and removal of the elongated support from the air distribution header.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a plurality of polymer bags that are properly aligned with the energy transmissive panel of the energy transmissive structure to allow light energy to effectively pass through the polymer bags into the energy transmissive structure.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a plurality of polymer bags that are properly aligned with one another to effectively block the transmission of energy through the energy transmissive panel of the energy transmissive structure.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for regulating the transmission of energy through an energy transmissive structure having at least one energy transmissive panel comprising in combination at least one elongated support adjacent to the energy transmissive panel of the energy transmissive structure; at least one polymer bag having an outer surface and an inner surface, the inner surface of the polymer bag encapsulating the elongated support, the outer surface of the polymer bag having a reflective coating; at least one elongated weight attached to the polymer bag; and at least one air distribution header attached to the elongated support, the air distribution header controlling an airflow to the inner surface of the polymer bag, whereby the polymer bag is inflated and deflated to regulate the transmission of energy through the transmissive energy panel of the energy transmissive structure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for regulating the transmission of energy through an energy transmissive structure having at least one energy transmissive panel comprising in combination a support structure adjacent to the energy transmissive panel of the energy transmissive structure, the support structure having a plurality of connection ports, the support structure allowing an airflow to communicate to the plurality of connection ports; a plurality of elongated supports being attached to the connection ports; a plurality of polymer bags encapsulating each of the elongated supports, each of the polymer bags having an outer surface and an inner surface, the inner surface of each of the polymer bags encapsulating each of the elongated supports, the outer surface of each of the polymer bags having a reflective coating; a plurality of elongated weights attached to each of the polymer bags; and a plurality of air distribution headers attached to each of the elongated supports, the air distribution headers supplying the airflow to each of the polymer bags, whereby the polymer bags are inflated and deflated to regulate the transmission of energy through the transmissive energy panel of the energy transmissive structure.
The foregoing has outlined some of the pertinent objects of the present invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The invention is defined by the appended claims with the specific embodiments shown in the attached drawings. For the purposes of summarizing the invention, the invention is an apparatus for regulating the transmission of energy through an energy transmissive structure.
Specifically, an inexpensive polymer bag is supported by an elongated support adjacent to an energy transmissive panel of the energy transmissive structure. An elongated weight maintains the polymer bag in its optimum position in order to regulate the transmission of energy through the energy transmissive structure.
More particularly, the polymer bag encapsulates the elongated support. An air distribution header provides an airflow which allows the polymer bag to be inflated or deflated around the elongated support. Further, the outer surface of the polymer bag has a reflective coating for reflecting energy in the desired direction.
The polymer bag is inflated to block the transmission of energy into or out of the energy transmissive structure. Alternatively, the polymer bag is deflated to allow the transmission of energy through the transmissive energy panel of the energy transmissive structure.
A feature of the present invention is the reflective coating on the polymer bags that downwardly reflects light energy into the energy transmissive structure.
Another feature of the present invention is the reflective coating that is made from the group consisting of aluminum paint, nickel paint, silver paint or any other metallic paint.
Still another feature of the present invention is the polymer bag that is made from the group consisting of polyethylene, polyester, polyamide, vinyl, polyvinyl chloride, acrylate or any other plastic material.
Another feature of the present invention is the tension spring that assists in holding the elongated weight in a fixed position.
Yet another feature of the present invention is the adjustable tee that allows the elongated support to be adjusted to the appropriate angular orientation to properly fit the transmissive structure.
Still yet another feature of the present invention is the plurality of holes along the length of the elongated support that communicate the flow of air to the polymer bag.
Another feature of the present invention is the slot positioned at an end of the elongated support that allows easy installation and removal of the elongated support from the air distribution header.
Yet another feature of the present invention is the plurality of polymer bags that are properly aligned with the energy transmissive panel of the energy transmissive structure that allow light energy to effectively pass through the polymer bags into the energy transmissive structure.
Still yet another feature of the present invention is the plurality of polymer bags that are properly aligned with one another that effectively block the transmission of energy through the energy transmissive panel of the energy transmissive structure.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the more pertinent and important features of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood so that the present contribution to the art can be more fully appreciated. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and the specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.